1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a Smart Switch whereby the power to the bridge board is automatically turn on and off by the insertion or removal of the storage device from a drive bay or a flash memory reader/writer application in which the interface cable is permanently attached to the computer.
2. Description of Related Art
In many latest external data storage designs that connect to the computer IO ports, such as USB port or Firewire (IEEE 1394) port, of a computer, the connecting cable typically consists of both a cable and a small interface electronic circuit board, or called bridge board. When the connecting cable is plugged into the IO port of a computer or computing equipment, the bridge board immediately gets power directly from the IO port and automatically issues the necessary handshake signals to the computer to establish the electrical communication to the external data storage device. To remove the external storage device from the computer, the connecting cable is removed from the IO port, thus disconnecting the bridge board from the computer and terminating the handshake signals.
In many applications such as a remote storage attachment, drive bay (data storage bay), flash memory reader/writer, and so on, it is not practical to detach the interface cable from the IO port of the computer. Instead, the storage device is connected and disconnected from the computer by attaching and detaching the storage device from the connecting cable, or from the drive bay that is attached to the connecting cable. In the case of flash memory reader/writer, the storage media is inserted or removed from the drive that is attached to the connecting cable. In these types of applications, the bridge board is connected to computer at all time. In order for the computer to recognize the presence and absence of the data storage device or storage media, the power to the bridge board must be turned on and off accordingly so to terminate and re-initiate the handshake signals to the computer.
This invention provides a design, referred to as “Smart Switch”, whereby the power to the bridge board is automatically turn on and off by the insertion or removal of the storage device from a drive bay or a flash memory reader/writer application in which the interface cable is permanently attached to the computer.